A Ring Around The Earth

[eacn1]

Okay this was just a random thought one day.. but think about this. If you were able to build a perfect ring around the earth, supported by beams, and then you took all the beams out at the same time. Would the ring float around the earth because of gravity? Or would it fall over, or spin around the earth??

[CaptainPanic]

Okay this was just a random thought one day.. but think about this. If you were able to build a perfect ring around the earth, supported by beams, and then you took all the beams out at the same time. Would the ring float around the earth because of gravity? Or would it fall over, or spin around the earth??

It would float. If however it would break up, all the individual segments of the ring would immediately fall back to earth...

Why not accelerate it so that it orbits the earth?

[Ophiolite]

If you were able to build a perfect ring around the earth,

Since the Earth is not a perfect sphere on any radius the gravitational forces on the ring would be uneven and a portion of it would be preferentially attracted towards the Earth. Subsequent behviour would depened upon the material properties of the ring.

[Janus]

It would float. If however it would break up, all the individual segments of the ring would immediately fall back to earth...

Why not accelerate it so that it orbits the earth?

 

Such a ring, even if the Earth was perfectly symmetrical and it was moving at orbital speeds, would not be stable. The slightest of nudges would cause it to drift into the Earth, and if moving at orbital speed, disintegrate. This has been mathematically proven. In fact, it was this very math that first proved that Saturn's rings could not be solid.

[Bob_for_short]

Okay this was just a random thought one day.. but think about this. If you were able to build a perfect ring around the earth, supported by beams, and then you took all the beams out at the same time. Would the ring float around the earth because of gravity? Or would it fall over, or spin around the earth??

Take a soccer ball and a rope and make a ring around the ball. Then add to the rope, say, 3 m extra and make a concentric ring around the ball. This longer ring will be at about 1 meter from the ball surface. In other words, the gap between the ball surface and the ring will be about 1 m.

 

Now make the same procedure with the Earth. The gap will be the same - about 1 m!

[michel123456]

Okay this was just a random thought one day.. but think about this. If you were able to build a perfect ring around the earth, supported by beams, and then you took all the beams out at the same time. Would the ring float around the earth because of gravity? Or would it fall over, or spin around the earth??

 

There is a smell of "déja vu".

 

And if instead of a ring you made a sphere?

[Sayonara]

There is a smell of "déja vu".

 

And if instead of a ring you made a sphere?

Oh god please not again.

[Bob_for_short]

And if instead of a ring you made a sphere?

 

Like clouds?

[CaptainPanic]

There is a smell of "déja vu".

 

And if instead of a ring you made a sphere?

A sphere with a door in it, so that we can leave earth for some explorations.

 

We can talk about it... but it's probably just as useful to watch star trek. They have an episode about the Dyson sphere - a sphere around a star.

Edited October 22, 2010 by CaptainPanic

[michel123456]

Like clouds?

 

Like a crust.

[michel123456]

Such a ring, even if the Earth was perfectly symmetrical and it was moving at orbital speeds, would not be stable. The slightest of nudges would cause it to drift into the Earth, and if moving at orbital speed, disintegrate. This has been mathematically proven. In fact, it was this very math that first proved that Saturn's rings could not be solid.

 

Maybe the same math could explain why Earth's crust is fracurated.

[staf7]

It would float. If however it would break up, all the individual segments of the ring would immediately fall back to earth...

Why not accelerate it so that it orbits the earth?

 

it would float but (this is just a thought) it may throw earth off balance and do something in the planet x 2012 theory.

[Incendia]

Such a ring, even if the Earth was perfectly symmetrical and it was moving at orbital speeds, would not be stable. The slightest of nudges would cause it to drift into the Earth, and if moving at orbital speed, disintegrate. This has been mathematically proven. In fact, it was this very math that first proved that Saturn's rings could not be solid.

 

...but Saturn's rings are solid...it is written in pretty much every textbook that they are made mainly of ice...ice is a solid...

 

...Why would it crash to Earth? The gas giants have rings...He didn't specify the distance the rings are from Earth...He just said that they must be built around Earth..._{Also the pillars are unnecessary.}

[Janus]

...but Saturn's rings are solid...it is written in pretty much every textbook that they are made mainly of ice...ice is a solid...

 

Saturn's rings are made of countless individual and separate particles of ice, each following it own individual orbit round Saturn. So while they consist of solid components, collectively these components do not act like a solid.

...Why would it crash to Earth? The gas giants have rings...He didn't specify the distance the rings are from Earth...He just said that they must be built around Earth..._{Also the pillars are unnecessary.}

 

Again, the Gas giant rings are made up of independent particles. The ring suggested is a single solid piece. As such,it is unstable, as James Maxwell was able to show in 1859.

[dalgoma]

Yes. And if you drilled a 1 metre long hole through the middle of a earth sized sphere, the volume left would be equal to that of a 1 metre diameter sphere without a hole.